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BirdyChat becomes first European chat app that is interoperable with WhatsApp

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Re: BirdyChat becomes first European chat app that is interoperable with WhatsApp

#471

Post by wolvoleo »

ksec wrote: post #219

I am wondering if this opens up the possibility of having more than two WhatsApp Number on the same phone. Especially on iOS. I have long requested this feature for Whatsapp Business, where I can pay an annual subscription just to have more than one number. So I can separate life between Business and Friends.

You can do this on many Android phones. You can have up to 5 WhatsApp numbers on a Samsung phone.

Samsung has dual messenger, so you can have 2 instances by default. Then you can open up a work profile and have another two. Then install WhatsApp in a secure folder and have another one (dual messenger seems blocked in secure folder so just one)

Re: BirdyChat becomes first European chat app that is interoperable with WhatsApp

#472

Post by wolvoleo »

kelnos wrote: post #79
Nextgrid wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue isn't closed vs open but business models. The reason most services don't support third-party clients is that their business model is based on advertising (aka wasting the user's time) and a third-party client would reduce said wasted time. A proprietary/for-profit messenger can very well use open protocols and embrace third-party clients if their business model wasn't explicitly based on anti-productivity.

Right. Unfortunately, people have overwhelmingly voted with their wallets, and prefer to pay with their time and attention (and ignore the fact that they're being psychologically manipulated into buying random products and services) than with actual cash. I expect you could get some people to pay for a messaging platform, but it would be a very small platform, and your business would not grow very much. And most of y…

The thing is, it wouldn't have to cost a lot.

Signal spends $50M a year for about 100 million active users. That's 50 cents per user per year. Or 4 cents per month :) Even with a bit of profit it's still nonsense money.

And 6 million of that alone is going up in sms validation because they insist on using mobile numbers as an identifier. They could save that if they used other methods.

Re: BirdyChat becomes first European chat app that is interoperable with WhatsApp

#473

Post by wolvoleo »

kubb wrote: post #103
Bratmon wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They never got cookie popups right. What makes you so confident?

Optimistic. They've got sideloading done, browser and search choice done, ad transparency done, more choice for payments done, many dark patterns banned. The gears are turning slowly, but they're doing really useful work.

Also, there's a lot of hate from US commenters but don't forget that the US was trying to do the same when it still had a sane administration.

The DoJ was trying to stop the Google search deal, trying to split them up etc. Big tech is too big and this is a problem everywhere.

Re: BirdyChat becomes first European chat app that is interoperable with WhatsApp

#474

Post by neko-kai »

ExoticPearTree wrote: post #449
neko-kai wrote: post #443

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, it can. And it has done so before.

Care to provide a link where the EU can tell a US company how to do business in Brazil (random country)?

Here's EU telling Microsoft how to conduct business globally, back in 2004 - https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/ms-s... - 'help rivals connect their products to the Windows operating system.' does not mean 'EU rivals', but any 'rivals', outside of the EU as well.

'Intel v Commission (C-413/14 P, 2017)' is another case where EU Antitrust explicitly punished global conduct outside of the EU.

Right now, with exception of antitrust, EU laws only incidentally affect global conduct, e.g. once a business is compliant with GDPR, it's often too costly to restrict compliance just to the EU. Nothing stops that from changing. EU absolutely can make a law that obliges e.g. chat app providers to either apply EU privacy standards globally or face bans/fines/seizure of their EU operations.

Re: BirdyChat becomes first European chat app that is interoperable with WhatsApp

#475

Post by krzyk »

miki123211 wrote: post #339
krzyk wrote: post #320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is an unique feature. Most people communicate with the ones in their region. Even when going on vacation most people can afford only to travel around their own continent.

"on your own Continent" != "in the EU." Ukraine isn't in the EU, neither is Swicerland, Norway or, most famously, the UK. All of these are on the European continent, all of these have citizens living right near a border with an EU country and regularly having to communicate with the EU side.

This is for EAA, which includes Switzerland, Norway and even Turkey.

Yes, it does not include UK, but that's on them.

I encourage people living in other countries to complain to their goverment on Metas policies.

Re: BirdyChat becomes first European chat app that is interoperable with WhatsApp

#476

Post by arter45 »

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #461
arter45 wrote: post #369

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, you can have two messaging apps, but people will have a “main app” which is typically the one used by important people in their life (family, partner,…) and/or the one used by most people. Meanwhile, if you all use two apps, everytime you want to check up on a friend you have to check two apps. Imagine all your friends love pizza, as do you. Suddenly you decide sushi is better so, naturally, you tell your friend…

> Meanwhile, if you all use two apps, everytime you want to check up on a friend you have to check two apps. You just have to check the one they use. Also, both of the apps would support notifications when something has happened in that app. > But what if they don’t like it that much? There is no real advantage of WhatsApp over Signal except that some people are already using it, and a significant privacy disadvantag…

Everything is a trade-off.

Signal trades some decreased convenience (for example in terms of backup) for some added security. Whatsapp has more “cosmetic” features (polls,…).

If you value privacy over convenience and other features Signal is a great choice. If you value convenience and other features over privacy Whatsapp is a great choice.

I think it’s safe to say that different people have different priorities which result in different choices.

Re: BirdyChat becomes first European chat app that is interoperable with WhatsApp

#477

Post by Tom1380 »

miki123211 wrote: post #339
krzyk wrote: post #320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is an unique feature. Most people communicate with the ones in their region. Even when going on vacation most people can afford only to travel around their own continent.

"on your own Continent" != "in the EU." Ukraine isn't in the EU, neither is Swicerland, Norway or, most famously, the UK. All of these are on the European continent, all of these have citizens living right near a border with an EU country and regularly having to communicate with the EU side.

I'm in Switzerland and I can confirm that it applies here too

Re: BirdyChat becomes first European chat app that is interoperable with WhatsApp

#478

Post by rw_grim »

globular-toast wrote: post #329

Why would I use this closed source program instead of another closed source program. I don't trust some random company from Latvia any more than I trust Meta. We need this interop to be available for free software clients. I want something like Pidgin.

Well you can have it now... https://github.com/hoehermann/purple-gowhatsapp/

Re: BirdyChat becomes first European chat app that is interoperable with WhatsApp

#479

Post by jhasse »

maqp wrote: post #378
jhasse wrote: post #361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Signal is so much worse than WhatsApp from a UX perspective. Backup sync forces you to allow background permissions (WhatsApp doesn't), you have to set and get nagged to enter a PIN every few weeks (WhatsApp doesn't), there's no transcription for audio messages (WhatsApp has that for some languages), the desktop app loses its connection if you don't open it ever few weeks (WhatsApp works fine), etc. If you want peopl…

>If you want people to switch, recommend Telegram. Why would people switch from always-end-to-end encrypted group chats to never-end-to-end encrypted group chats?

Because they don't even know what e2e encryption is.

Re: BirdyChat becomes first European chat app that is interoperable with WhatsApp

#480

Post by jhasse »

Batman8675309 wrote: post #448
jhasse wrote: post #361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Signal is so much worse than WhatsApp from a UX perspective. Backup sync forces you to allow background permissions (WhatsApp doesn't), you have to set and get nagged to enter a PIN every few weeks (WhatsApp doesn't), there's no transcription for audio messages (WhatsApp has that for some languages), the desktop app loses its connection if you don't open it ever few weeks (WhatsApp works fine), etc. If you want peopl…

Yes. Let's switch to an app with Russian connections that has actively refused to implement E2EE for over a decade now.

Russian connections is FUD and Telegram has E2EE encryption, but not by default.
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